• Question: Do you believe humans will, one day, be able to regenerate?

    Asked by nymph to James, Jayne, Sharon on 25 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: James Chan

      James Chan answered on 24 Mar 2011:

      Hi nymph, that’s the ultimate goal, but I don’t think we’d be able to do that on our own. I think we’d need help because we need to create the right kind of environment for the stem cells to do what we want them to do, and they’re probably need some sort of frame for guidance. So if you wanted to regenerate your arm after it gets chopped off, you’d probably need a big frame for the cells to grow on, but also need the right chemicals on the different parts of the frame to tell the stem cells at these different places to turn into different types of cells, like skin or muscle or nerve etc… It seems a long way off at the moment, but never say never!

    • Photo: Sharon Sneddon

      Sharon Sneddon answered on 25 Mar 2011:

      HI Nymph,
      I think we are quite a long way off from being able to do that just yet. It would be amazing in the case of people who have lost limbs etc, but it’s very tricky to get all the cells in the right place at the right time with the right signals.

      There are animals that can regenerate limbs, certain kind of newts and salamanders can do it, so hopefully by studying how it happens in these animals we will be able to do it in the future!!

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